Bite Sized Insights for Food Industry Professionals

It goes without saying that safety is a serious issue for food industry professionals. Whether it’s the safety of your employees, your products, or your customers, it’s a top concern that companies often struggle to manage. This month, we’re shining the spotlight on three 2017 Alchemy Engage sessions that focus on three different aspects of safety. In these sessions, industry experts and thought leaders will share best practices and real-world applications you can use to ensure safety in your organization.

Blending a Safety Culture with Operational Excellence: A Recipe for Success

You have a sense that a strong food safety culture with engaged employees has a positive impact on overall plant performance. But is this effect real and measurable? Dr. Lone Jespersen, Principal for Cultivate LLC, has done pioneering field research with leading food companies like Maple Leaf Foods, Cargill, and Wholesome International to quantify the relationship between food safety culture and operational excellence. Dr. Jespersen will discuss how you can apply best practices to drive similar food safety and operational improvements in your company.

In three short years, Trident Seafoods has built an industry-best training program for more than 4,000 seasonal and full-time employees who speak 26 different languages. Ensuring food safety compliance, reducing liabilities, and improving employee retention rates are just a few of the benefits they’ve achieved. But they are not stopping there. Joel Carlson, Trident Seafoods’ Training and Development Manager, will describe how the company leverages Alchemy for more than just training as they roll out the next phase of their food safety program. By shifting their focus from compliance to production, Trident is building an even stronger ROI case.

Virtually every workplace safety incident involves something the victim had been trained on how to avoid. What’s worse, often the exact action that caused the injury was specifically addressed in explicit “do not do this” terms. Bumble Bee Foods’ Xavier Aguilera, Chudleigh’s Amanda Moss, and Alchemy’s Holly Mockus will discuss how successful workplace safety programs recognize this contradiction and employ reinforcement and coaching tools to overcome the unfortunate “in one ear, out the other” syndrome.